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Earth Has Had 26 Powerful Asteroid Explosions in 13 Years

Is asteroid impact a real threat to humanity? Watch this video and decide for yourself.

Simulation of asteroid impact with earth. (Credit: Los Angeles Times)

What you see above is a visualization of 26 powerful explosions in the Earth’s atmosphere that have occurred since the year 2000 — each the result of a space rock slamming into our planet.

The video was put together by the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit that hopes to send a privately funded infrared telescope into space by 2018 to map the solar system, locating as many potentially dangerous asteroids as possible.

Most of us remain blissfully unaware of the pummeling the Earth gets on a regular basis because the force released by most asteroid impacts is absorbed entirely by our atmosphere and rarely causes much damage at ground level.